When A Hacker Dies

[Demon_Skeith]

On December 2014, Michael Hamelin, a hacker and physicist, died in an unfortunate car crash. He is survived by his wife, a scientist named Beth Hamelin—who not only has to deal with the grief that comes with a loved one passing on, but also has to manage the intense security measures that Hamelin left behind.

Today, The Daily Dot published a story that chronicles some of the difficulties that come with death, technology, and social media. After Michael's death, Beth Hamelin was left a bevy of gadgets and accounts that she couldn't access because of how well-secured Michael had left them. Since Michael was a security expert, he made sure that all of his sensitive information was on lockdown. But now that he has passed away, even small things like changing the wi-fi password have turned into a challenge for his family:

more here

I have back ups in place, do you?

 

[froggyboy604]

This is unfortunate that he died so suddenly. At least, gadgets like WiFi routers are more affordable, so his wife can easily replace the router with a $20 WiFi router from eBay, or Amazon instead of trying to login to the router without the correct password,

Smartphones, tablets, and laptops are more expensive to replace, but not overly expensive to replace since a good laptop, tablet, and smartphone can be bought for $199-500.

Maybe the guy's wife should stop trying to recover the locked data, and move on with her life instead of spending a large amount of her time trying to recover locked files which maybe less valuable downloaded files like pirated cartoons, movies, and music which people can freely download from Download sites and Bittorrent.

 

[lb]

Why would anyone keep their family photos password-protected and not tell his family the password(s)? That seems really unusual to me...

 

[froggyboy604]

It is a shame that people don't make printed copies of family photos since printing out photos is affordable at places like Costco, and other retailers.

Photo quality inkjet printers, Photo paper for Inkjet printers, and ink is also more affordable these days.

The person who died, and his wife are probably not poor since they both are well educated, and have well paying jobs as a physicist and scientist, so they can most likely afford to print out photos at a store, or themselves.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

This is unfortunate that he died so suddenly. At least, gadgets like WiFi routers are more affordable, so his wife can easily replace the router with a $20 WiFi router from eBay, or Amazon instead of trying to login to the router without the correct password,

Smartphones, tablets, and laptops are more expensive to replace, but not overly expensive to replace since a good laptop, tablet, and smartphone can be bought for $199-500.

Maybe the guy's wife should stop trying to recover the locked data, and move on with her life instead of spending a large amount of her time trying to recover locked files which maybe less valuable downloaded files like pirated cartoons, movies, and music which people can freely download from Download sites and Bittorrent.

A hacker's database is worth a few million, filled with secrets, notes and many other things. To her, she most likely wants to know what he was doing and check to see if he left any legacy.

All she has to do is reach out to another hacker really, takes one to break into one.

 

[froggyboy604]

A hacker's database is worth a few million, filled with secrets, notes and many other things. To her, she most likely wants to know what he was doing and check to see if he left any legacy.

All she has to do is reach out to another hacker really, takes one to break into one.

She may get in trouble if any of his files and folder contained illegal images or video of animal-human romantic relationships, pirated movies, government secrets, and other illegal content since the law may convict her as a criminal for possessing and viewing illegal content if the other hacker she found reported her to the cops for having illegal files on her computers which she inherited from her dead husband.

The hacker she found could also be secretly working for the police, and government agencies like the Department of Justice, and would have to report any crimes to the government. There are a lot of hackers who work for the government.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

True, but she would be fine as long as she didn't go to anyone official.